Management systems and methods for claim-based patent analysis

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and graphical user interfaces for the management and coordination of patent infringement-related analyses, such as freedom-to-operate, patent clearance, and enforcement, are provided. Patent claim information is extracted and presented to users along with purpose-specific workflows that facilitate the capture and presentation of work product on both a claim-by-claim level as well as on a document level. Integrated data management facilitates access to historical work product by interconnecting the various record entities of the system including product information, patent document information, review information, and work product information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/617,167, filed on Jan. 12, 2018,titled MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CLAIM-BASED PATENT ANALYSIS,which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention pertains to the field of patent analysis and, moreparticularly, to methods and systems for facilitating the efficientreview of patent documents and managing work product created throughsuch processes.

BACKGROUND

Freedom-to-operate (FTO) and patent clearance analysis are importanttasks to be performed by participants of most commercial industries.Without mitigating the risk of patent infringement by routinelyassessing FTO for products they place on the market, companies may befound liable for significant damages. When patent infringement is deemed“willful,” the damages can be enhanced by courts by as much as threetimes the base amount, resulting in significant liability in many cases.

Conventional means for assessing and managing FTO and patent clearanceactivities typically involve storing work product and analysis inspreadsheets or other generic discrete documents that are notpurpose-built for the task. Work product is often difficult to find dueto versioning issues, consistency in storage locations, and employeeturnover resulting in lost institutional knowledge. There is littletransparency in the process for these reasons, which negatively affectsthe ability for legal departments to adequately collaborate with productdevelopment teams. This lack of collaboration can substantially prolongtime-to-market for products because of the inability to timely deliverand respond to patent risk assessments.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention are described herein that providesignificant advantages over conventional systems by creating a centralrepository, novel workflows, increased collaborative capabilities,enhanced transparency, and ease-of-use for all FTO, patent clearance, orother infringement-based analyses. As a result, systems in accordancewith embodiments of the present invention will enable legal analysts andproduct developers to work together in mitigating patent risk moreefficiently in order to reduce the time it takes to bring products tomarket and, ultimately, accelerate the innovation process.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a method flow diagram in accordance with one exampleembodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates a user interface in accordance with one exampleembodiment.

FIGS. 3A-3J illustrate user interfaces in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates a user interface in accordance with one exampleembodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a user interface in accordance with one exampleembodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates a user interface in accordance with one exampleembodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates a user interface in accordance with one exampleembodiment.

FIGS. 8A-8B illustrate user interfaces in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIGS. 9A-9B illustrate user interfaces in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIGS. 10A-10C illustrate user interfaces in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIGS. 11A-11B illustrate user interfaces in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 12 illustrates a user interface in accordance with one exampleembodiment.

FIGS. 13A-13B illustrate user interfaces in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 14 illustrates a user interface in accordance with one exampleembodiment.

FIG. 15 illustrates a user interface in accordance with one exampleembodiment.

FIGS. 16A-16D illustrate user interfaces in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 17 illustrates a user interface in accordance with one exampleembodiment.

FIG. 18 is a system schematic diagram in accordance with one exampleembodiment.

The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only and arenot intended to limit the scope of the present invention in any way.Exemplary implementations will now be described with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various aspects of the methods and systems of the present inventiondisclosed herein, along with the accompanying drawings referencedherein, are intended to be exemplary and not limiting. It is understoodthat other embodiments may be utilized and fall within the scope of theappended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Certain types of patent analysis are conducted with respect to aparticular product, system, or process in order to determine whetherthat product, system, or process is within the scope of any claims of aset of patents. Non-exclusive examples of these types of analyses may bereferred to as infringement studies, freedom-to-operate analysis,clearance, licensing assessment, enforcement analysis, diligence, etc.Other types of analysis are primarily directed to whether the subjectmatter of an issued or pending patent claim is disclosed, taught, orsuggested by the prior art. These types of analyses are generallyreferred to as invalidity, prior art, or patentability investigations.

In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, systems andmethods are provided that enhance the speed, accuracy, and efficiency ofall sorts of patent analysis. The present invention is implemented on acomputer or electronic terminal. The computer is able to communicateeither directly or indirectly (using intermediate devices) with anapplication client to receive and transmit information. It is envisionedthat the system of the present invention can be implemented on anyexisting or future terminal or device with the processing capability toperform the functions described herein. The scope of the presentinvention is not limited by the type of terminal or device used.Further, the specification may refer to a click of a mouse or a keyboardentry as a means for user input and interaction with the terminaldisplay as an example of an action of the user. While this describes apreferred mode of interaction, the scope of the present invention is notlimited to the use of a mouse or keyboard as the input device or to theclick of a mouse button as the user's action. Rather, any action by auser within a short period of time, whether comprising one or moreclicks of a mouse button or other input device, is considered an actionof the user for the purposes of the present invention.

In accordance with the present invention, a particular collection ofdata may be created as a fundamental commodity of a patent analysisprocess described herein. This collection of data will be referred toherein as a “patent review” or simply “review.” In embodiments of theinvention, a review may comprise an integrated collection of dataincluding, inter alia: (a) review characteristics/metadata; (b) productinformation; (c) one or more patent publications; and (d) user workproduct.

A process 100 for creating a review using a system in accordance withthe present invention is shown in FIG. 1. The process 100 may be carriedout by means of a software application installed on a user terminal thatincludes at least one user input device, a central processing unit, anda display device configured to display a graphical user interface. Theuser terminal may be a personal computer, mobile device, tablet, or anyother suitable device. In preferred embodiments the user terminal isconfigured to access a web-based application configured to implementsystems and methods of the present invention via the internet. However,an application that is locally stored on a user terminal is also withinthe scope of the present invention.

FIG. 2 represents a homepage or dashboard page of an applicationutilizing systems and methods of the present invention. From this page,a user may access one of several different functionalities and tools.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, in step 102, a user initiates a reviewcreation process by, for example, clicking on a button in a graphicaluser interface displayed on a user terminal, such as clicking startbutton 162 in FIG. 2. Then, in step 104, the user interface prompts theuser to enter various information or characteristics for purposes ofadministrative management of the review. In step 106, the user maycreate a project record or select a project from a list of previouslycreated projects. In step 108, the user may similarly create a newproduct record or select a product from a list of previously createdproducts. In step 110, the user may similarly create a new aspect recordor select an aspect from a list of previously created aspects. Each ofsteps 106, 108, and 110 are optional, although in preferred embodimentsat least one of these steps is performed. In step 112, the user may addone or more patent publications by either copying and pasting a list ofdocument identifiers (such as publication numbers), by performing asearch, or by any other means of importing publications into theapplication. The review creation process ends at step 114. At thecompletion of the review creation process 100, the information providedby the user is stored in one or more databases and functionallyinter-related (e.g., by means of data tables) so as to form a “review”entity in accordance with the present invention.

Each of the above review creation steps will be described in greaterdetail below. Then, various advantageous functionality, systems, andmethods utilizing the review records will be described. Finally, acomputing system and network architecture suitable for use for thepresent invention will be described.

The review creation process may be initiated by the user clicking on adesignated portion of a graphical user interface displayed on a userterminal, such as a button indicating “New Review” or the like. Then,the user defines review characteristics in step 104. FIGS. 3A-3Jillustrate user interfaces as part of an example flow process that maybe provided by a computer program to allow the user to provide variouscharacteristics to describe the review. In FIG. 3A, the flow prompts theuser to enter a review identifier, or “Review ID” 170. FIG. 3Billustrates a prompt that allows the user to enter a description 172 forthe review, and FIG. 3C allows the user to enter a due date 174 for thereview. Additional information may be recorded as review characteristicsin accordance with the present invention.

Next, in steps 106, 108, and 110, the computer program may be configuredto prompt the user to create or select projects 176, products 178, oraspects 180 as shown in FIGS. 3D and 3E. As used herein, “projects,”“products,” and “aspects” are hierarchical descriptors used to describeparticular products, systems, methods, devices, apparatuses, etc. thatare intended to be the subject of one or more patent reviews. Here,“aspects” are considered a divided portion of a “product,” which isconsidered a divided portion of a “project.” Stated differently,“projects” are the highest level of organization and contain “products.”“Products” are the second highest level of organization and may contain“aspects.”

For example, a user may be using the present invention to facilitate afreedom-to-operate analysis for a particular product that is intended tobe placed on the market. Thus, the user may create a “product” recordfor the product that is under consideration. If the product is part of aline of similar products, then they may be grouped as part of a broader“project” category. In the other direction, if the product includesseveral discrete components or features that may be the subject of alimited freedom-to-operate investigation, then the user may wish tocreate an “aspect” record for each discrete feature that may be thesubject of a review. Thus, in steps 106, 108, and 110, the point is thatthe user may associate one or more “projects,” one or more “products,”or one or more “aspects” with a particular review in order to define thesubject of the analysis.

It should be noted, however, that the “project,” “product,” and “aspect”descriptors are not intended to be limiting insofar as whether aparticular concept or article is one or the other. These terms areprimarily used for organizational purposes. Thus, it is not necessarythat a “product” as used herein or in an embodying computer applicationbe representative of an actual product. “Product” can refer to an idea,concept, old technology, future technology, patent claims, pendingclaims, or any other subject matter under consideration in relation topatents. Further “product” may refer to an entire device or system, partof a device or system, or several devices or systems treated as one.

FIG. 3D further illustrates a prompt that is configured to receive inputfrom a user to associate projects and products with a review. The leftside of the window includes a listing 182 of projects that have beenpreviously saved in the system. Each of the projects are expandable todisplay nested products 184 by, for example, clicking on the down arrowat the right of each project row. To designate a project or product assubject matter of a review, the user can simply click the row of theselected project or product. An indicator may be applied to the selectedprojects and products, shown here as a circle 186, to provide a visualindication of the selections. The names of selected projects 176 andproducts 178 may alternatively or additionally be displayed separatelyfrom the list, shown here as part of the right-hand portion of the userinterface.

If a user wishes to associate a new project to a review (i.e., a projectthat is not already listed), the user may select a new project button188. The user will then be prompted to provide a name for the newproject, which will subsequently be listed among the other projects. Afurther user option may be provided to add a new product to eitherexisting projects or newly added projects. For example, although notshown, each of the listed projects may have a menu button associatedtherewith that provides an option to add a new product under theproject. Upon clicking a new product option, the user will then beprompted to provide a name for the new product, which will subsequentlybe displayed in the listing under the selected project.

After selecting projects and/or products, the user may be presented witha prompt such as that shown in FIG. 3E in order to select particularaspects under consideration. In some embodiments, aspect listing 190 isbased on the projects or products that were selected in the previousstep. That is, the aspect listing 190 may show only aspects that areassociated with the selected projects and products. This restrictionhelps to ensure that an analyst is cognizant of the product thatcontains a selected aspect because in some patent analysis activities,such as freedom-to-operate, it may be improper to consider a part of aproduct without considering the whole. The prompt shown in FIG. 3E mayalso include functionality to add new aspects to products, similar tothat described above regarding adding new projects and products.

The interfaces shown in FIGS. 3D-3E is only exemplary of a mechanism toreceive the product-related components of a review from a user. One ofskill in the art will recognize that a great variety of interfaces maybe used to capture project, product, and aspect information from a userwithout departing from the spirit of the invention.

FIGS. 3F-3I illustrate graphical user interface prompts configured toreceive publications from a user in furtherance of step 112 of thereview creation process 100. In accordance with the present inventionand as described herein, the terms “publication” and “publicationidentifier” may be used interchangeably. Likewise, the terms “patent”and “patent identifier” may be used interchangeably. As such, when thisdisclosure refers to receiving “publications” from a user, it mayinclude the user simply entering publication numbers into an interface.This is all that is needed in order perform the necessary processingsince the application has access to worldwide collections of patent dataand can preferably retrieve content, bibliographic data, and any otherpublication information on demand as long as it has identifyinginformation such as a publication number (which may include otherindicia such as a country code and/or kind code). Other identifyinginformation may include application number, priority number, familyidentifier, docket number, or any other information.

In addition, as used herein, the term “patent,” “patent document,” or“patent publication” may refer to actually granted patents, whetheractive, expired, or withdrawn, as well as patent applications, which mayor may not have actually been granted or published. All of thesedocuments are collectively referred to as “patent documents,” “patentpublications,” or simply “publications.”

FIG. 3F illustrates a user interface that provides two ways for a userto enter publications in order to associate them with a review: (a)adding by publication number 192; and (b) adding using a search function194. Other ways to add publications to a review may include importing alist from a file or establishing a direct connection with anotherapplication by means of an API (application program interface) or otherapplication-to-application integration.

When a user selects the Add By Publication Number button 192, a furtherwindow may be displayed as shown in FIG. 3G. This window includes twofields: a list name field 196 and a publication entry field 198. Thelist name field 196 may be pre-populated with a default list name, suchas Manual Patents 1 (which can be automatically incremented based on thenumber of lists that have already been added). The user may keep thedefault name or enter a new name by clicking on the list name field 196and typing in a new name.

To add publications, a user may simply type the publication numbers intothe field 198. This may be accomplished by either manually typing eachof the numbers or by copying a list of numbers from an external sourceand pasting them into the field 198. The application may allow for anunlimited number of publication numbers, or may impose limits in orderto reduce processing burdens. The system is preferably configured to beable to receive patent publication numbers from all available patentjurisdictions. To this end, publication numbers generally followprescribed nomenclature such as [CC][PUB. NO.][KC], where [CC]represents a country code, [PUB. NO.] represents the publication number,which typically follows a serial progression, and [KC] represents apublication kind code, which is typically a code that represents a typeof publication (e.g., published application or published grant). Onceuser has entered all desired publication numbers, they may click abutton 200 to submit the request and thereby add the patents to thereview.

If a user wishes to add patents to a review using a search function,they may select the add-by-search button 194 shown in FIG. 3F. The usermay then be presented with a window such as that shown in FIG. 3H. Thiswindow represents a basic Boolean operator based search function.Keywords, terms, and operators may be entered into field 202. Table 204lists a number of available search fields that can be used to refine asearch. For example, if a user uses the field code “TTL/” as shown, thenthe subsequent terms will be searched only in the patent title field.The user may select one or more databases from which to search patentpublications including, for example, US granted patents (USPAT), USpublished patent applications (USAPP), World Intellectual PropertyOrganization publications (WIPO), Japan Patent Office publications (JP),or European Patent Office publications (EP). These databases are justexamples of available databases. The present invention preferablyincludes as many international patent jurisdictions as feasible in orderto maximize scope and comprehensiveness. To the extent that additionaljurisdictions are available, database selectors 206 may allow a user toselect one or more of such jurisdictions depending on the particularneeds of the user and the task at hand.

Limit field 208 may represent a maximum number of publications that areto be returned by search. This limit can be set by the user or can beimposed by the system. For example, if a user knows that they will nothave time to review more than 1,000 publications, they can set the limitat 1,000 in order to limit processing time. The user may thenre-structure a search query in order to yield a set of results that isless than the maximum. Since the search function requires processingpower, the system may impose automatic default limits to ensure thatsystem resources will not be encumbered.

After entering a search query in field 202 and clicking a submit button210, the number of hit results may be indicated by count 212. If theuser is satisfied with the search they may add the results to the reviewby clicking the Add To Review button. Although not shown, the user maybe given an opportunity to provide a name to the list of patents thatare added by using the search functionality.

FIG. 3I shows the “add publications” interface after a list ofpublications has been added by publication number 214 and a further listof publications has been added by search 216. Each of these lists may bereferred to as “sources” as shown in the figure. A source may be removedby clicking on a close button 218 or by similar action.

The user may then click a button 220 to advance to the next step in thereview creation process. In some embodiments, the review creationprocess is complete and clicking the button 220 completes the process.Other embodiments may include further steps, such as assigning teammembers to the review and designating their roles, setting access rightsfor the review, or providing any other desired information. If the nextstep includes assigning team members, the user may be presented with afurther interface, as shown in FIG. 3J, that lists the members of theteam. The user may select one or more of the listed members to associatethem with the review. In some cases, it may be desirable to assignspecific roles to team members. For example, if a member of the team isan attorney then that member may be assigned an “attorney” role in thecontext of the review. FIG. XX shows the user Leia Organa 222 as adesignated attorney and the users Yoda 224 and Han Solo 226 asdesignated analysts. By designating at least one attorney to a reviewand maintaining appropriate usage policies, a system in accordance withthe present invention may have further advantages by helping to preserveattorney-client privilege, attorney work product, or other protectionsfor communications, documents, and other information entered into thesystem. Clicking a button 228, indicated for example as “save,” “startreview,” or the like may then complete the review creation process. Theuser may then be presented with a review summary interface as shown inFIG. 6, which will be described further below.

Reviews Interface

Referring again to FIG. 2, navigation bar 230 includes various accesspoints to different modules within a system in accordance with thepresent invention. Navigation bar may be available as a persistentdisplay in any interface of the system, or it may be optionally hiddenand accessible by clicking a menu button or equivalent.

A user may access a listing of reviews by clicking button 232 innavigation bar 230. This action will result in the display of a reviewlist interface 234 such as that shown in FIG. 4. The reviews shown inlist 234 are generated by querying a database for all reviews for whichthe requesting user has access. The user may have access by virtue ofhaving created a review, being on a team that shares reviews across theteam, or has been specifically designated as a recipient by anotheruser. Other ways to share access to reviews are described further below.

The review listing may include information relating to each of severalreviews, where each review is listed in a separate row. For example, thereview listing may indicate a review progress 236 (indicated by a piechart, for example), the review ID 238, due date 240, associatedprojects and products 242, associated aspects 244, description 246, datecreated 248, date modified 250, assigned analysts (not shown), and/orassigned attorneys (not shown).

Each of the rows in listing 234 may have a selection box 252 that allowsa user to select one or more rows upon which to perform an action. Whenone or more selection boxes 252 are selected, an action menu may appearthat includes options such as copy, delete, edit, share, archive, etc.When a user selects one of these actions, the selected action will beperformed on the one or more selected reviews.

The review row may also include an icon 254 that represents initiationof a sharing function. FIG. 5 illustrates a user interface configured toallow a user to share reviews with others. In the field 256, a user mayenter an email address for an individual with whom the user would liketo share the review. The user may select access rights using thedropdown menu 258 or other mechanism in order to delegate appropriaterights as desired. Such rights may include full edit/modificationrights, read only, commenting only, determinations only, tagging only,or combinations thereof. Once the share recipient is entered, therecipient is listed among those who have access to the review in list260.

A user may alternatively enter simply a name of an individual with whomthey would like to share the review. If the intended share recipient isalready a member of the user's team, then the system may automaticallypresent an identification of a matching team member. The user may thenselect the team member to add to a list 260 of individuals who haveaccess to the review.

Access rights may also be controlled by organization. As shown in FIG.5, an organization 262 is shown as having access rights to the review.The user may click on dropdown menu 264 to change the access rightspermitted to members of the organization. Individual access rights maybe configured to override organization access rights. For example, ifthe user Mace Windu is a member of the organization Jedi Inc., and JediInc. is only permitted read access to a review, the owner of the reviewmay give Mace Windu additional rights, such as editing rights, byspecifically entering Mace Windu's name in the field 256 and assigningthe desired level of access using the menu 258.

A user may decide whether it is desired to allow unregistered users toview a review or whether only registered, logged-in users may viewand/or edit a shared review. For this purpose, an option 266 may beprovided that allows the application to send a public URL address to anintended share recipient. Language such as that shown, for example“Allow non-registered users to access the shared review with a link,”may be used to present this option to the user. If the option isselected, then the application will generate a link and send it to anemail address that is associated with the intended share recipient(whether entered by the user or previously stored in the system). Eitherthe intended recipient or anyone who receives the link can then accessthe review. Alternatively, if the information contained in the review isparticularly sensitive and the user desires that only registered,logged-in users have access, then the user may uncheck the box 266. Inthis case, the system will generate a link that directs to an internetdestination that can only be accessed by the intended recipient uponlogging into the system with personalized credentials.

An application utilizing systems and methods in accordance with thepresent invention maintains a registered user database in order tofacilitate effective and appropriate handling of review sharingcapabilities. For example, a user may not know whether an intended sharerecipient is a registered user of the application. In this case, thesystem may look up the email address entered by the user in theregistered user database and determine whether a generated link shouldbe publicly accessible (if the share recipient is unregistered the userselects the box 266) or a generated link should be accessible only bythe intended recipient (if the share recipient is registered).

If the option 266 is not selected, then the system will look up theentered email address of the intended recipient in the registered userdatabase and, if the recipient is a registered user, send a private linkto the recipient that requires the recipient to log into the system inorder to access the shared review. If the option 266 is not selected andthe intended recipient is not a registered user, then the system maysend a message to the email address of the intended recipient (asentered by the user) that notifies the recipient that a review has beenshared with them and may be accessed by registering with the system.Once the recipient has registered with the system, they may then begiven access to the review shared by the original user.

A user may also wish to share a review with one or more unspecifiedusers. For that purpose, the user may select the public link sharingoption 268 in order to generate a public link. Upon selecting the option268, the system will display a URL 270 that the user can copy and pastein another location. Copy button 272 may be provided for convenience.The user may also generate a new public link (which may optionallydestroy a previous public link) by clicking a link refresh button 274.

When a user is a recipient of a review shared by another user, thereview may be listed separately from reviews that were created by theuser. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the active tab shows reviewscreated natively by the user. The active tab may also show all reviewsthat were created by members of the user's team or organization. Theinterface may include a further tab or link 276 to view shared reviews.By clicking the shared review link 276, a user may view a listing of allreviews for which they have been granted access by another user.Although not shown, the shared review link may include similarinformation for shared reviews as shown for native reviews in FIG. 4.

Review Summary

Referring again to FIG. 4, a user may enter a review record by selectingone of the listed reviews. This may be achieved by simply clicking on alocation in the row of the desired review or by any other similarselection means. The interface may then present a review summaryinterface 300, as shown in FIG. 6.

The information displayed in interface 300 reflects the informationgathered during the review creation process discussed above as well assubsequent user work product. The left-hand pane 302 displays a reviewsummary that may include information such as review ID, due date,description, associated projects, products, and aspects, analysts,attorneys, date created, and/or date last modified. The review summarypane may also include access to functions such as sharing, editing, anda further menu, such as by means of share icon 308, edit icon 310, andmenu button 312.

The sharing function 308 may be equivalent to that described above withrespect to function 254 in FIGS. 4 and 5. The editing function 310 mayallow a user to re-enter the review creation flow process describedabove with respect to FIGS. 3A-3J. The menu function 312 may provideaccess to further functionality such as copying or deleting the review.It should be appreciated that the specific location of each of thesefunctions is not critical. For example, instead of the sharing andediting functions being readily accessible via dedicated buttons, thosefunctions may alternatively by provided in menu 312. Likewise, the menucan be removed so that all functions are available through dedicatedbuttons.

The central pane 304 may display various records and functionalitypertaining to the publications that have been added to the review.Review All button 314 may allow a user to initiate a review of all addedpublications starting with a first publication based on a predeterminedsorting order (further described below). Resume button 316 may allow auser to re-enter a publication review that has already been started. Forexample, upon clicking the resume button 316, the system may query allpublications that have been added to the review and which include atleast one claim for which no determination has been made (claimdeterminations are discussed further below) and present to the user thefirst publication among that set. List button 318 may present to theuser a listed view of all publications that have been entered into thereview (discussed further below). Report button 320 may initiate theautomatic generation of an exportable document that includes publicationdata along with work produced entered through the system. The report maybe formatted as a word processing document or as a spreadsheet, andpreferably has options to include publication bibliographic data, claimtext, expiration data, as well as user work product such as publicationtags and comments and claim determinations, comments and highlighting.

Central pane 304 may also include a list of publication sources thathave been added to the review. These sources can be the result of manualaddition of publication numbers or by searching as discussed above withreference to the review creation process. A user may also add newsources to a review by clicking a new source button 322 as shown in thefigure. Interface similar to those shown in FIGS. 3F-3I may then bepresented to the user.

The publication source list may include characteristic information foreach of the sources such as source review progress 324, source name 326,and a source description 328 that includes the number of publications ineach source. Each source may have associated therewith a selection box330 so that actions may be performed on one or more sources. When aselection box 330 is selected, an action menu (not shown) may appearthat includes options and functionality including, for example, to mergesources, remove source(s), list publications of the selected source(s),or initiate an analysis of publications in the selected source(s).

The right-hand pane 306 may display review status information andprogress. A progress indicator, for example a pie chart 332, may beconfigured to represent the status of a review by assigning a differentclaim determination to each colored pie slice. For example, one slicemay represent the percentage of publications that have been determinedas “clear,” another slice may represent the percentage of publicationsthat have been determined as “review file wrapper,” and so on for theother available determinations. Since a system in accordance with thepresent invention may facilitate determinations on a claim-by-claimbasis, it may be preferable to normalize the quantities to reflect anumber of publications rather than a number of claims. For example, if apublication has 3 claims and only one of them has been determined as“clear” and the other two claims are determined as “need technicalinfo,” then such publication will be considered as one third of apublication falling under the “clear” category and two thirds in the“need technical info” category. In this way, the progress indicatorrepresents a function of the number of publications rather than a numberof claims. In other embodiments, the quantities may not be normalizedsuch that the statistics represent the number of claims falling intoeach category rather than a normalized publication quantity. In stillother embodiments, both quantities can be displayed so that the user mayinterpret the data in a manner of their preference.

Right-hand pane 306 may also include a user-supplied stage indicator 334in order to capture additional information regarding the status of thereview.

Patent Review Interface

FIG. 8A shows an exemplary user interface that facilitates a patentanalysis step of the present invention. A user may enter this analysisview by clicking on the review button 314 shown in FIG. 6. In that case,the system will retrieve all of the publications that have been added tothe review and present them, one-by-one sequentially, in an interfacesuch as that shown in FIG. 8A. Another way to enter the analysis view isto select a source from the source list in pane 304. This action maytake the user directly to an analysis view of the publicationsassociated with the particular selected source. The user mayalternatively select a selection box 330 of one or more sources, whichmay then display an action menu, and then the user may choose to reviewall publications in the selected one or more sources.

Alternatively, the user may choose to initiate analysis of allpublications according to determinations that were made with respect tothe publications' claims. For example, a user may wish to analyze allpublications that include claims for which no determinations have yetbeen made (i.e., those that have “undetermined” status). The interfaceshown in FIG. 6 may accomplish this by allowing the user to click on thecorresponding slice of the pie chart representing the “undetermined”status. The user may then be presented with the option to either listthe corresponding publications or initiate a claim analysis or review.If the user chooses to review the publications, an interface similar tothat shown in FIG. 8A may be displayed, with the difference being thatthe queue of publications to be reviewed is limited to thosepublications that include claims that have been marked with the selecteddetermination (or, as in the example, those that have yet to bedetermined).

In one portion of the user interface 400, shown here on the left-handside, publication details 402 may be displayed. Such publication detailsmay include, for example, bibliographic data such as publication number,title, inventor(s), assignee(s), filing date, priority date, publicationdate, or any other relevant descriptive information. Publication detailsmay also include status information such as application status (e.g.,information extracted from the U.S. Patent Office's Patent ApplicationInformation Retrieval (PAIR) a foreign office counterpart, or athird-party information provider), maintenance fee payment status, orexpiration status (including whether expiration was a result ofnon-payment of maintenance feeds, term expiration, or another reason).The publication details area may also include publication content suchas an abstract, drawings, or specification. Each item capable of displayin the publication details area may be selectively hidden and exposed bydefault or upon user action, or configured to be permanently visible orinvisible.

The user interface also includes a claim text display area. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 8A, the claim text display area 404 is locatedto the right of the publication details area. In one embodiment, theclaim text display area 404 displays only the independent claims of thepublication identified in the publication details area. In otherembodiments, the claim text display area 404 may include all claims(i.e., independent, dependent, and/or multiply dependent) of therespective publication. Claim text may be retrieved by an applicationserver in communication with one or more patent information databases,as further described with respect to the network architecture below.

Each claim that is listed and displayed in the claim text display area404 is separately selectable by a user. The user interface may indicatewhich of the plurality of claims has been selected by for example,highlighting the portion of the display that includes the selectedclaim. For example, if the claim text display area displays three claimsand the user selects claim 1, then the area containing claim 1 may beshaded in a different color than the other claims. The user may use amouse-controlled cursor or other pointing device to select a differentclaim from among the plurality of claims, which may result in thedifferent claim being indicated by the designated different color. Inother embodiments, it may be possible for the user select one or moreclaims at the same time.

The user interface includes a further portion, referred to herein as adetermination area 406, that is configured to capture analysis,observations, annotations, or predetermined classifiers on aclaim-by-claim basis. The term “determination” is used herein solely forreference purposes; it should be recognized by one skilled in the artthat the area is not limited to any particular purpose or otherwiselimited beyond the reasonable scope of the invention.

The determination area 406 may include sub-portions, each of whichcorresponds to a respective claim that is listed in the claim textdisplay area. That is, in database, a record will be stored thatcorrelates a particular review, a particular publication with thereview, a particular claim within the publication, and data entered inthe particular sub-portion by user. When a particular claim in claimtext display area 404 is selected, the corresponding determination area406 sub-portion may be similarly indicated in order to convey to theuser which sub-portion is active and correlated to the selected claim,as indicated in FIG. 8A. For example, if the selected claim in claimtext display area 404 is indicated by blue-colored shading, thecorresponding sub-portion may likewise by shaded in blue while theremainder of the sub-portions are unshaded or hidden, either partiallyor completely.

The data supplied by a user may include selecting one of a plurality ofpredefined determinations 408, which may alternatively be referred to as“classifiers,” “buckets,” “characteristics,” “categories,” “filters,”“actions,” “annotations,” “statuses,” or the like without the intent tolimit the scope of the invention. Such determinations may include, forexample, any one or more of, but not limited to, “Clear,” “Review FileWrapper,” “Need Technical Info,” “Further Review,” “Counsel Review,”“Monitor,” “Invalidity Position,” or “Other.” Other determinations maybe included as deemed appropriate for the situation. Icons may be placedadjacent to or near each of the predefined determinations to establishan additional visual cue to aid in ease of use. The icons used herepreferably match icons used in the publication list view for filteringand other purposes, described further below. In some embodiments, thesystem includes functionality that enables a user to create newdeterminations so that they are presented in the determination areasub-portion 406. Users may create new determinations on a per-reviewbasis or on a persistent basis system-wide. Users may also createdifferent sets of determinations and store them as templates so thatthey can be chosen and applied for use on a per-review basis.

The determinations 408 may represent decisions made by a user withrespect to a selected claim. For example, in an embodiment of theinvention in which the system is used to perform a productfreedom-to-operate analysis, the user may determine that a particularproduct does not infringe a selected claim (i.e., that the product doesnot embody all of the claim limitations). In this case, the user mayselect and click on the predefined determination “Clear” to indicatethat the product has cleared the claim (from a patent infringementstandpoint). The user may then select another claim from the claim textdisplay area 404, which consequently causes the system to automaticallyselect another sub-portion in the determination area 406, and continuethe analysis with respect to the newly selected claim. Depending on thecircumstances, the user may select “Clear” as was done for the firstclaim, or the user may select a different determination from thedisplayed list. The database is configured to store the selecteddetermination in a manner that correlates it to the selected claim.

The determination area sub-portion 406 may include further means tocapture a user's analysis, such as a comment field 410. As shown inFIGS. 8A and 8B, sub-portion 406 is configured to allow a user to entertext in the field 410. After entering the text and submitting the entryby clicking a button or using the “Enter” key on a keyboard, the commentwill be registered in the database and displayed within or near thesub-portion 406. The displayed comment 412, shown in FIG. 8B, mayinclude an avatar, name identifier, time/date stamp or any othercharacteristics associated with the comment. A menu button associatedwith an entered comment 412 may allow the user to edit or delete thecomment.

Referring again to the claim text display area 404 and FIG. 8B, in someembodiments of the present invention capability is provided to allow auser to highlight portions of the claim text. In one embodiment,highlighting 414 is applied to a portion or all of claim text that isselected by a user with a pointing device. The user may further beprovided with the option to select the color of the highlighting 414.

Footnotes or annotations may be further associated with claim texthighlighting 414. In one embodiment, a user may have the option ofadding a comment upon activating claim text highlighting. After a userselects a portion of the claim text in the interface shown in FIG. 8B, adialogue window 416, shown in FIG. 9A, may be displayed that providesthe user with an entry form. The user may then enter text into the form.The text may serve as a comment or annotation pertaining to the selectedclaim text, which may be displayed in a portion of the window 416, forexample a top portion of the window 416. After submitting the comment,it may be displayed in conjunction with the highlighted claim text 414.For example, as shown in FIG. 8B, the entered comment is displayed inthe determination area sub-portion 406 correlated with the claim thatcontains the selected text. A numerical indicator, e.g., a footnote 418,may be applied to indicate a connection between the highlighted claimtext 414 and the user-supplied comment or annotation.

In another embodiment, the user may be provided with predefined commenttemplates that become available upon selection of particular claim text.As shown in FIG. 9B, the selected claim text may automatically beimported into one or more of a plurality of predefined comment templates420. Comment templates such as those shown may be useful in establishingconsistent behavior among a plurality of users, increasing efficiencythroughout the patent review process by reducing the time spent typing,and otherwise implementing uniform policies and best practices.

The patent review interface may also include means for a user to providetheir own work product or analysis for storage in the system inconnection with the publication itself (in addition to or instead ofclaim-specific analysis). Referring again to publication details area402 in FIG. 8A, several icons are provided that represent various datathat may be associated with the currently displayed publication. Theseicons and associated data capture mechanisms may include, for example, atag icon 422 representing tagging functionality, an attachment icon 424representing document storage functionality, and a comment icon 426representing commenting functionality. Each of these functionalitieswill be described in the following.

Tag icon 422 represents a tagging function. When a user selects the tagicon 422, a pop-up window may be displayed, as shown in FIG. 10A, orother display mechanism to allow the user to enter text to create a newtag or select from previously created tags. A user may create a tagsimply by entering text into the field 428 and pressing Enter, Tab, oranother submission key on a keyboard or other input device. The userinterface will then provide a visual indicator to indicate that the taghas been created and stored. For example, after text is entered and asubmission key is pressed, the text may then be surrounded in acolor-shaded box 430 as shown. All created tags are stored in a databasein connection with the particular publication and in connection with aparticular review.

Attachment icon 424 represents a document upload and attachmentfunction. When a user selects the attachment icon 424, a window may bedisplayed, as shown in FIG. 10B, or other display mechanism to allow theuser to upload a new file attachment or select a file from among a listof previously stored files. A user may upload a file by clicking on theupload button 432 and then being prompted to select a file from alocation on their local computer. In some embodiments, the user mayupload a file from an internet or other network destination using anetwork address format such as a URL or shared drive folder address. Alluploaded documents and files are stored in a database in connection withthe particular publication and in connection with a particular review.

Comment icon 426 represents a publication-level commenting function.Publication-level comments are handled differently from claim-levelcomments 412 described above in that publication-level comments may bemade in connection with the publication as a whole, rather than inconnection with a particular claim of the publication. When a userselects the comment icon 426, a pop-up window may be displayed, as shownin FIG. 10C, or other display mechanism to allow the user to enter textto create a new comment. A user may create a comment simply by enteringtext into the field 434 and pressing Enter, Tab, another submission keyon a keyboard or input device, or by clicking a submission button suchas the Add Comment button shown. The user interface may then display thesubmitted comment as shown. The comment may include a user avatar,identifier, and/or timestamp. The interface may further include a menubutton (not shown) or dedicated other button to allow a user to edit ordelete a comment. In some embodiments, users are only permitted to editor delete comments that they themselves created, while in otherembodiments users are permitted to edit or delete any comment regardlessof creator. These modification rights can be configured and delegatedamong users as desired. All created comments are stored in a database inconnection with the particular publication and in connection with aparticular review.

The patent review interface may include further functionality to furtherinform the user about the publication. For example, icon 436 representsa publication download function that, when clicked, enables a user todownload the actual official published document underlying theinformation presented in the interface. The document may be downloadedin a PDF, TIFF, or other suitable file format.

When a user selects the publication download icon, a query is sent toapplication server. The server then fetches the official document anddelivers it to the user terminal. Official publication documents may bestored on an application server, enterprise storage databases, oranother database managed by the system administrator. Alternatively orin combination, application server may retrieve the official publicationfrom patent information databases, which may be maintained by athird-party provider or by the system administrator.

Icon 438 may represent a link to further information about thepublication represented in display 402. In one embodiment, the iconlinks to an online patent information resource such as the USPTO GlobalDossier. The link may alternatively connect a user to other USPTOwebpages or to the webpages of other patent offices, such as those ofthe European Patent Office (EPO) (e.g., espacenet.com) or JapanesePatent Office (JPO). Additional links and corresponding icons may beprovided so that multiple sources are quickly accessible frompublication review interface 400.

FIGS. 11A and 11B show further enhancements to the publication reviewinterface 400. As shown in FIG. 11A, the review interface includes anadditional column, which may be referred to as a products column 440.The entities listed in the products column 440 represent the projects442, products 444, and aspects (not shown) that were associated with thereview during the review creation process described above (or addedafterward by means of an editing process). As shown, each product 444 islisted under its respective project 442. A user may expand each product444 listing by clicking an expansion button, for example arrow 446 tosee additional details about the product. Such details may include, forexample, a specification of aspects that have been associated with theproducts. In some embodiments, the expanded details may indicate all ofthe aspects associated with the product, only the aspects associatedwith the product that have also been associated with the current review,or a combination of both by indicating aspects that are underconsideration in the current review differently from the aspects thatare not under consideration.

The product listings 444 may be interactive such that a user may selectand deselect one or more of the listed products. A product listing 444may indicate that it is selected by being shaded with a designatedcolor. This selectivity allows a user to register differentdeterminations with respect to different products in view of a singleclaim. In the example shown, the user has applied the “clear”determination to the product “Light Saber 200” (with respect to claim 1)and has applied the “need technical info” determination to both products“A200” and “550 Super” (also with respect to claim 1). This mechanismcan be applied to the other claims by first selecting the claim, thenselecting one or more products 444 to which a determination is to beassigned, and then selecting the desired determination fromdetermination area 406. Then, the products 444 may be deselected andother undetermined products are selected. Then the determination for theother, newly selected product is selected. The determination status foreach of the products 444 for each of the claims may be shown in theinactive portion of the determination area 406.

FIG. 11B shows an alternative interface for performing a multipleproduct review in a manner similar to that described with respect toFIG. 11A. The difference here is that a product selection panel 448 isdisposed in the same vertical space as the determination area 406. Here,the user may first select the claim under consideration, then select oneor more products 444 to which a determination is to be assigned, andthen select the desired determination from the determinations list 408.The user may then select different products from product panel 448 andlikewise apply different determinations, and then move on to the nextclaim.

The more products under consideration and the more claims included in apublication, the more confusing it may get to keep abreast of thestatuses of each of the products with respect to each of the claims.Accordingly, it may be helpful to provide a visual aid to illustratethese respective statuses. FIG. 12 shows an example of one way todemonstrate these statuses. As shown, a claim-product matrix provides anintuitive layout to quickly ascertain the respective statuses of each ofthe products.

List View Interface

FIG. 7 shows an example of a publication list view interface that may beutilized in accordance with the present invention. A user may enter thislist view by clicking on the list button 318 shown in FIG. 6. In thatcase, the system will retrieve all of the publications that have beenadded to the review and present them in a list such as that shown inFIG. 7. In some embodiments, the list may be paginated so that only aportion of the entire list of publications is shown at once. Another wayto enter the list view is to select a source from the source listdisplayed in pane 304. This action may take the user directly to a listview of the publications associated with the particular selected source.The user may alternatively select a selection box 330 of one or moresources, which may then display an action menu, and then the user maychoose to list all publications in the selected one or more sources.

Alternatively, the user may choose to view a list of all publicationsaccording to determinations that were made with respect to thepublications' claims. For example, a user may wish to list allpublications that include claims that were determined as needing counselreview. The interface shown in FIG. 6 may accomplish this by allowingthe user to click on the corresponding slice of the pie chartrepresenting the “counsel review” determination. The user may then bepresented with the option to either list the corresponding publicationsor initiate a claim analysis. If the user chooses to list thepublications, an interface similar to that shown in FIG. 7 will bedisplayed, with the difference being that the list is limited to thosepublications that include claims that have been marked with the selecteddetermination.

Regardless of the particular manner by which a user has arrived at thepublication list view interface, the interface may include severalfunctionalities to further increase efficiency, insight, and overallproductivity in a patent review process. While the interface shown inFIG. 7 is an example of systems and methods that utilize the presentinvention, it should be recognized that many departures from thisparticular arrangement may be made and remain within the scope of thepresent invention.

Each publication may be listed in its own row, which may contain basicbibliographic information such as publication number 450, title 452,priority date 454, filing date 456, publication date 458, assignee 460,as well as (not shown) inventor(s), classification, maintenance feestatus, expiration status, pending status, etc. Each of these fields maybe displayed in separate, sortable columns.

In addition to the bibliographic information, additional information maybe displayed in relation to each of the publications. This additionalinformation may reflect user work product that has been performed. Forexample, the left-most column 462 may indicate determinations that weremade with respect to each of the publication's claims. Each of the iconsmay represent a different determination. If all of the claims of aparticular publication have been marked with the same determination,then only a single icon would be present in the column. However, ifdifferent claims of a single publication were marked with differentdeterminations, then two or more icons may be displayed in the column462 to represent each of the distinct determinations.

User work product information may also include any tags 464, attachments466, or comments 468 applied to publications. This information may alsobe displayed in each publication row. In some embodiments, the tag 464,attachment 466, and comment 468 icons only appear if such informationhas been provided with respect to the respective publication. Forpublication that do not have this information applied, the interface maybe configured to display the icons upon “hover-over” by a pointingdevice. The user may add additional information or otherwise modify thework product by clicking on the respective icon. That is, a user mayadd, remove, or change tags applied to particular publications byclicking on tag icon 464. An interface similar to that shown in FIG. 10Amay then be displayed for this purpose. A user may similarly makemodifications to document attachments and comments.

Review history icon 470 may represent a publication review historyfunction that inter-relates work product with respect to a singlepublication across multiple reviews. Review history functionality isdiscussed in more detail below.

The top portion 472 of the list view interface shown in FIG. 7 mayinclude several filters for managing, searching, or processing thepublication list. Starting at the left, the first several iconsrepresent determination filters. Icon 474 may activate and deactivatethe determination filters. When user clicks icon 474 the ten icons tothe right may be hidden, and then displayed again upon clicking it againin order to preserve space.

The determination icons may be representations for the samedeterminations that are available in the publication review interfaceshown in FIG. 8A and include, for example: clear, review file wrapper,need technical info, further review, counsel review, monitor, invalidityposition, duplicate claim, other, and undetermined. This is not adefinitive list, as determinations may be removed or others added asdeemed appropriate. When a user clicks on one of the determinationicons, the publication list may be modified to show only thosepublications that have claims marked with the selected determination.Multiple determination icons may be selected, which may then result inpublications being listed that have claims that have either of theselected determinations.

Further filters include a tag inclusion filter 476 and a tag exclusionfilter 478. Entering a tag in the tag inclusion filter 476 may result indisplaying only those publications that have been tagged with theentered tag. Entering a tag in the tag exclusion filter 478 may resultin displaying all publications except those publication that have beentagged with the entered tag.

List interface may also include a comment filter. After clicking on thecomment icon 480, a user may enter text into a text field. The list maythen be modified to display only publications that have comments, eitheron the publication level or the claim level, that include the enteredtext. Alternatively, a user may be permitted to select whether to searchpublication level comments, claim level comments, or both.

List interface may also include a bibliographic data filter . Afterclicking the bibliographic data icon 482, the user may enter text into atext field. The list may then be modified to display only publicationsthat have bibliographic data that matches the entered text.

In multiple-product reviews, a further filter may be provided to allowthe user to select one or more of the associated products. The impact ofthis filter selection will affect the determination icons that are shownin the left-hand column. That is, the determinations that are shown willreflect only the determinations made with respect to the selectedproduct(s) in the product filter.

Clicking on the row of a publication in the list view shown in FIG. 7may allow a user to enter a publication review interface such as thatshown in FIG. 8A.

Inter-Relations Between Record Entities

A significant advantage of the present invention is the ability toleverage work product across many different projects or patent reviews.In many industries, innovators working on particular technology willcome across the same, similar, or related publications many times overthe course of business. Systems and methods for facilitating andcapturing patent analysis in accordance with the present inventionharness the power of inter-related records, databases, and new workflowsin order to significantly increase the efficiency of most patent reviewprojects. The present invention also gives users ready access toinsights and observations by surfacing prior work product in way that isnot available in conventional systems.

Local and Global Tags and Comments

One way that the present invention surfaces historical work product isthrough additional functionality built into the tagging and commentingfunctionality described above. In addition to using tags and comments toorganize, categorize, manage, flag, annotate, and otherwise captureanalysis and observations within a single publication review, thepresent invention provides further capability for tags and comments tooperate simultaneously across multiple reviews. This functionality isespecially helpful in all sorts of patent document analysis because itallows users to leverage analysis that was made in prior reviews, suchas when prior products are similar to current products underinvestigation or when the same publications are associated withdifferent reviews, while also functioning on a local review level forfiltering or otherwise characterizing publications. For example, whenperforming a product freedom-to-operate analysis with respect to a setof patents, it is helpful to know whether a particular patentpublication has been reviewed in the past, even if that review was madewith respect to a different product, and what determinations orobservations were made at that point. Activities such as file historyreview, litigation analysis, technical analysis, ownershipinvestigations, research, etc., can be very time consuming. If any ofthat effort was made in earlier reviews and captured using tags orcomments, significant time savings can be achieved in a current reviewby quickly revisiting that prior work product using the duallocal/global functionality described herein.

Tags and comments may be indicated differently depending on the reviewswith which they are directly associated in order to convey to a userwhether the tag or comment is local or not. As used herein, “local tag”and “local comment” are relative terms that refer to a tag and comment,respectively, that is or was created by a user in a current review(i.e., the review that is currently active or open in the userinterface). This is distinct from a tag or comment that was created by auser in another review (i.e., a review other than that which iscurrently active or open in the user interface).

Tags and comments may be represented in at least three differentconfigurations to indicate to the user the local or global status oftags or comments in the context of a particular active review. One wayto represent different tag statuses is by using different colors,shading, patterns, or by textual indicia, all of which are contemplatedby the present invention. For example, with reference to FIG. 8A, if oneor more tags have been applied to a displayed publication in the currentreview, the tag icon 422 may have a blue color, for example. If one ormore tags has been applied to the displayed publication in anotherreview but not the current review, the tag icon 422 may instead have anorange color, for example. If one or more tags have been applied to thedisplayed publication in both the current review and another review, thetag icon 422 may have a purple color, for example. Each of theseindications convey different information to the user about whether tagshave been to the displayed publication and also whether they have beenapplied (i) in the current review; (ii) a different review, or (iii)both the current review and another review.

The same color scheme can likewise be applied to the comment icon 426 toindicate whether one or more comments have been applied to the displayedpublication (i) in the current review; (ii) a different review, or (iii)both the current review and another review. Similarly, this color schemecan be applied to the attachment icon 424 to indicate whether one ormore files have been attached or uploaded to the displayed publication(i) in the current review; (ii) a different review, or (iii) both thecurrent review and another review.

If a user clicks on a tag icon 422 that indicates that a tag has beenapplied to the displayed publication in another review, a pop-up window484 or other display mechanism may be displayed that shows theparticular tags that have been applied, as shown in FIG. 13A. As shown,the left-hand side 486 displays the tags that have been applied in thecurrent review, while the right-hand side 488 displays tags that wereapplied to the same publication in different reviews. Each of the otherreviews in which the tag has been applied can be identified by a reviewidentifier, name, and/or description, and the particular tags that wereapplied are correspondingly shown along with the review information.

Similarly, with reference to FIG. 8A, if a user clicks on a comment icon426 that indicates that a comment has been applied to the displayedpublication in another review, a pop-up window 490 or other displaymechanism may be displayed that shows the particular comments that havebeen applied, as shown in FIG. 13B. As shown, the left-hand side 492displays the comments that have been applied in the current review,while the right-hand side 494 displays comments that were applied to thesame publication in different reviews. Each of the other reviews inwhich a comment has been applied can be identified by a reviewidentifier, name, and/or description, and the particular comments thatwere applied are correspondingly shown along with the reviewinformation. A similar mechanism may be used to indicate documents thathave been attached in the current and/or other reviews.

Review History

Another powerful way to increase efficiency and insight in the patentreview process in accordance with the present invention is to generatean interactive publication review history interface usinginter-connected records such as that shown in FIG. 14. As used herein, a“publication review history” or “review history” refers to work productthat was created and stored with respect to a particular publicationacross all associated reviews. This includes, for example, any tags,comments, documents, claim determinations, claim comments, texthighlighting, or any other information stored in association with theparticular publication. The review history interface is presented basedon querying one or more application databases and gathering thepreviously stored work product.

FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary review history interface in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention. In the left-hand pane 496of the display, there is shown bibliographic and basic publicationinformation such as publication number, title, inventor(s), assignee,priority date, filing date, publication date, actual or estimatedexpiration date, maintenance fee status, status date, and abstract.Although not shown, other publication information may similarly bedisplayed. If the publication is an application publication and theapplication is still pending, then additional information may include anapplication status (e.g., PAIR status). The pane 496 may also includeone or more drawings taken from either the face or the contents of theactual publication document.

Pane 496 may also include icons in a similar manner as those in patentreview interface 400, such as tags 498, attachments 500, comments 502,document download 504, and external links 506.

The top-right pane 508 lists all of the reviews in which the particularpublication has been added. The reviews may be listed in table format ina manner that resembles the review listing shown in FIG. 4. The reviewlisting may include fields such as, for example, review ID, due date,projects, products, aspects, description, date created, a statusindicator, document count, comment count, and/or tag count. A button 510may also be provided for allowing the user to jump directly to thereview. In one embodiment, when a user clicks the button 510 inassociation with one of the reviews listed in the list 508, a newbrowser tab is initiated and the application presents the subjectpublication in a patent review interface in the context of the selectedreview.

Lower-right hand pane 512 displays the work product relevant to thesubject publication, in the context of the review that is selected inlist 508. The user can switch between any one of a plurality of reviewsthat are listed in the list 508 by clicking its row in order to view theassociated work product. For example, in FIG. 14 the review havingreview ID “SF-9600” is selected (as indicated by the shaded row).Accordingly, pane 512 displays the work product associated therewith.

Pane 512 may include a plurality of tabs, each of which is selectable todisplay the various work product. Determinations tab 514 is shown asselected in FIG. 14. When determinations tab 514 is selected the lowerdisplay may resemble a summary version of a claim text area 522 anddetermination area 524. These areas resemble the corresponding claimtext area 404 and determination area 406 in patent review interface 400and are configured to display congruent information. This informationmay include claim determinations as well as claim comments, as shown.The claim text area 522 may also display any claim text highlighting andcorresponding annotations that were entered by a user in the selectedreview in a manner similar that shown and described with respect to FIG.8B.

When a user selects the document tab 516, the pane 512 may display alist of documents that have been attached or uploaded to the publicationas part of the selected review. The display (not shown) may be similarto that shown in FIG. 10B. Functionality is preferably provided toenable a user to view or download any listed documents directly from thereview history interface.

When a user selects the comments tab 518, the pane 512 may display anycomments that have been created with respect to the publication in theselected review. The display (not shown) may be similar to that shown inFIGS. 10C or 13B.

When a user selects the tags tab 520, the pane 512 may display any tagsthat have been created with respect to the publication in the selectedreview. The display (not shown) may be similar to that shown in FIGS.10A or 13A.

Users may open the review history interface shown in FIG. 14 by clickingon an icon or menu option that is associated with a particularpublication. For example, in FIG. 7, clicking on icon 470 commands thesystem to open the review history interface. Alternatively, the reviewhistory interface may be activated by selecting a menu button andfurther selecting an option for opening the review history. Eachpublication may consequently have its own icon 470 for accessing itsreview history. While the icon 470 is visibly shown in relation to eachof the publication listed in FIG. 7, in other embodiments the icon maybe hidden for any publications that do not have any review history. Inother words, in such embodiments, the icon 470 may be shown for aparticular publication only if that publication was previously added toanother review (in addition to the current review). In otherembodiments, the icon 470 may be shown for a particular publication onlyif that publication was previously added to another review and workproduct was created with respect to that publication. Using one of theseselective icon display methods, a user may be quickly alerted as towhether a publication has been associated with any prior reviews. A usermay alternatively access the review history interface from thepublication review interface 400 shown in FIG. 8A by clicking on icon526.

In application in accordance with an embodiment of the present inventionmay include functionality for searching for publication work productacross all stored reviews. This function may be accessible from thenavigation column 230 by clicking on a link, such as patent finder 574,as shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 15 shows an example of a results list after using the patent finderfunctionality. The user is able to use a variety of filters or searchfunctions to extract desired publications across all those that havebeen entered into the application as part of a review. For example, byusing the Quick Lookup function 576, the user can enter a publicationnumber, or part thereof, as a search query. The interface 572 will thenreturn all results that are responsive to the query. For more advancedsearch functionality, the user may click on the global filter tab 578and apply queries to search by determinations 580, tags 582, comments584, publication number 586, or bibliographic information (not shown).

In FIG. 15, the user searched across all reviews based on applying thedetermination filter “Need Technical Info.” Specifically, the userselected the Need Technical Info icon 588 from among displayeddetermination icons in order to search for all publications for whichthe determination “Need Technical Info” had been applied. As indicated,51 results have been identified, and each publication is listed inlisting 590 along with the number of reviews with which each publicationhas been associated. Clicking on a publication row will open a reviewhistory interface for the selected publication, such as that shown inFIG. 14.

This system-wide search functionality is a powerful mechanism to quicklylook up the work product associated with particular publications thathave been entered into the system. Whether searching by publicationnumber or work product aspects such as determinations, tags, orcomments, this functionality enables the user to quickly locatehistorical work and analysis. Conventional systems typically involvework product that is scattered in different locations, accessible bylimited individuals, or is otherwise cumbersome to locate.

Project Management

A further significant advantage of systems and methods in accordancewith the present invention is the ability to connect patent reviews withparticular projects, products, and aspects in a meaningful, functional,and intuitive way. While simply identifying these entities inconjunction with reviews goes a long way in managing reviews so thatprior work can be memorialized and leveraged, further advantages can berealized by virtue of a structured system for storing, organizing, andinteracting with projects, products, and reviews. While much of thisdiscussion is directed to the various interfaces that facilitate andenable the user's experience, it should be recognized that the back-enddata management, inter-relations, and data transmission likewiserepresent the novel and non-obvious aspects of the present invention.

Referring back to the dashboard shown in FIG. 2, a user may access aproject management module by clicking on the projects button 528 in thenavigation bar 230. An example interface suitable for project managementis shown in FIGS. 16A-D.

As shown, project names may be listed in column 530, while projectinformation is listed on the right-hand side 532. The information shownon the right represents the project that is actively selected from thelist 530. The actively selected project may be indicated by a circle orother suitable indicator. Project information may include project name,due date, description, assigned analysts, and assigned attorneys. Thelower right-hand portion 532 of the display may include comments enteredby users in relation to the project.

Further information may include documents or files that have beenattached to the selected project. This information may be accessed byselecting a documents button 536 to toggle over to a document listingand upload page (not shown).

A user may also view all of the reviews that have been associated with aselected project by clicking a review tab 538. As shown in FIG. 16B, theinterface will then look up and retrieve from a database all reviewsconnected with the selected product and display them in the area 540.The review information displayed here may be similar to that displayedin the review module shown in FIG. 4. Clicking on a particular review inthe listing 540 may take the user to that review's detail page, similarto that shown in FIG. 6.

New project icon 542 may be selected to create and store a new projectin the database. Upon clicking the icon, a display may be presented toprompt the user to enter descriptive information about the project, suchas the information shown in the overview pane in FIG. 16A. A menu may beprovided in relation to each of the projects in order to perform one ormore actions, such as editing the project, deleting the project, addinga product under the project, or initiating the creation of a new patentreview associated with the selected project.

Products may be created and stored relationally under a project. Asshown, for example, products “Light Saber 200” and “New Product” areorganized as products under the higher-level project “Jedi Tools.”Products may be added, edited, or deleted by selecting an action from amenu.

FIG. 16C shows a product overview display 544 relative to the selectedexample product “Light Saber 200.” As shown, the product may includedescriptive information such as name, project, description, date offirst release, aspects, internet links, assigned analysts, and assignedattorneys. The product information may further include one or moreimages 546 that may be uploaded by a user.

Product overview display may also show comments that were made withrespect to the product itself 548 as well as project comments 550. Usersmay also enter new comments in the spaces 552, 554 or edit or deleteexisting comments.

Action menu 556 may be provided to enable a user to perform one or moreactions with respect to a selected product. Such actions may includeediting or deleting a product, changing its business status, orinitiating the creation of a new review associated with the selectedproduct.

Products can be further delineated by defining particular features or,as referred to herein, “aspects,” as shown in FIG. 16D. These aspectscan also be associated with particular patent reviews during the reviewcreation process in order to provide further definition of the review.In some embodiments, a restriction may be imposed that prevents a userfrom associating an aspect with a review if the product containing theaspect is not also associated with the review. This is a practical rulethat may be applied because, in certain activities (such as clearance orfreedom-to-operate), it would be improper to consider infringementliability of an aspect without regard to the product in which itresides. In other embodiments, however, this limitation may not beimposed so that a user is provided with maximum flexibility despitepotential errors in some use cases.

Aspects may have descriptive information similar to that of products. Asshown in aspect details area 558 in FIG. 16D, an aspect may include anaspect name, description, date of first release, products it is in,internet link, and its business status. Users may also upload images 560and documents 562 to provide further information about the aspect.Aspect-specific comments 564 may also be provided.

Aspect records may be configured such that they may be associated with aplurality of different products, which may also cover differentprojects. The purpose of this is because various different products mayin fact contain common aspects. For example, two different cars may beusing the same engine or airbag inflator. Thus, utilizing systems andmethods of the present invention would allow a patent analyst to easilyand quickly leverage analysis that was performed on a particular productfeature (i.e., aspect) even when that feature is being implemented in adifferent product. That is, if an analyst has performed afreedom-to-operate investigation with respect to an airbag inflator whenit was installed in car model A, the analyst will be able to leveragethat prior analysis when the airbag inflator is installed in car modelB. This capability is nearly impossible or, at best, extremelycumbersome to do with conventional methods.

Action menu 566 may be provided to enable a user to perform one or moreactions with respect to a selected aspect. Such actions may includeediting or deleting an aspect, changing its business status, orinitiating the creation of a new review associated with the selectedaspect.

FIG. 17 shows an alternative arrangement for a project management modulein accordance with the present invention. In this display, projectinformation is arranged in rows, and interactive functionality such asproject attachments and comments are accessible for each project in itsrespective row.

Each project row is expandable to display respective tables for productsor associated reviews, each of which likewise includes functionality forattachments, comments, and image upload (for products), as shown ininterface 568. Reviews listed in the review tables may be accessed byclicking on the respective row.

The project management module may be searchable to find data recordscontaining particular words or phrases using search function 570. Theuser may select one or more fields in which to perform the search, suchas project name, project description, product name, product description,analyst, attorney, etc.

System Architecture

Referring to FIG. 18, a general architecture 600 of a system inaccordance with the present invention is shown. A user terminal 602 maybe any electronic device configured to communicate with another devicevia a network 604, such as a local area network, an intranet, or theinternet, by either wired or wireless communication. The user terminal602 includes one or more input devices such as a mouse, touchpad,keyboard, or other device known in the art. The user terminal alsoincludes a display device that enables the presentation of a graphicaluser interface to the user. In embodiments of the present invention, theuser terminal accesses the application client through the network byusing an internet browsing application such as Google Chrome, MozillaFirefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, orany other network browser.

The application client 606 is a processing component that has sourcecode stored thereon for implementing front-end client processing. Theapplication client 606 may be responsible for processing and presentingthe graphical user interfaces described herein to the user, receivinguser inputs, communicating with application server 612 for dataprocessing, and outputting resulting information to the user terminal602 for subsequent display thereon. The application client 606communicates with an authentication database 608, either integratedtherewith or via network connection, in order to authenticate usersbased on a combination of credentials. User credentials may include oneor more of a username, password, biometric data, two-factorauthentication information or other information known in the art forauthenticating users in a secure manner. The application client 606 maycommunicate with an application server 612 for back end processing.

The application server 612 communicates with the application client 606and one or more additional back end processing components and storagedevices as shown in FIG. 18. Email services component 614 facilitatesemail or other electronic communications (e.g., text messages, socialmedia messaging, or other messaging) with users based on applicationevents. The application may be configured to transmit messages to usersbased on predefined rules, events, activities, or notifications.

Application server 612 may communicate with one or more patentinformation databases 622 in order to retrieve patent information anddata in response to user activity. Such data may include raw or curatedpatent bibliographic data, patent publication documents and images, fulltext character files, OCR text, patent assignment information,maintenance fee information, appeal data, litigation data, licensinginformation, or any other patent related information known in the art.Patent data may also include value added information such asclassification information, annotation information, and otherinformation created by applying particular analysis. The data may bestored in any form known in the art, such as XML, PDF, TIFF, JSON, ZIP,including likes and equivalents. Patent information databases may bestored within a local server environment or an externally-hostedenvironment, and may be managed by the application provider, athird-party database provider, a government official patent office, oranother entity.

Application server 612 may also communicate with one or more applicationdatabases 620 in order to store and retrieve user-specific informationin furtherance of the benefits of the present invention. Applicationdatabase 620 may store records created by the user of a system inaccordance with the present invention. Such records may includeinformation relating to projects, products, aspects, and reviews createdby the user such as document attachments, images, and the like. Storedrecords may also include any work product or analysis provided by theuser. Work product may include comments, tags, patent attachments, claimdeterminations, history, or any other user-provided information. Theapplication server 612 transmits information to the application database620 based on directives and functionality operable by action at userterminal 602, and retrieves information based on user requests. Theapplication server 612 may also be configured to store and retrieveinformation from application database 620 based on automated processingwithout user initiation or involvement.

Application server 612 may communicate with further storage systems,through enterprise storage services 610, in order to facilitate orenable a dedicated file storage database 616 and/or backup storage 618.Enterprise storage services 610, file database 616, and backup storage618 may be used as necessary or, optionally, not at all, depending uponthe needs of a system in accordance with the present invention inconsideration of storage size limits, security, processing efficiency,cost effectiveness, etc.

While described as a single processing component, each componentdescribed herein may actually implemented by one or more separatecomponents without departing from the spirit of the invention. Moreover,one, several, or all of the components indicated downstream of theinternet connection (relative to the user terminal) may be disposed in asingle processing component or server environment as deemed suitable byone skilled in the art without limitation. Alternatively, theapplication client 606 may be installed on a user terminal 602 or otherconnected device before connecting to the application server 612 throughthe internet 604 or other network. In some embodiments, the entiresystem shown in FIG. 18 is installed in a local environment without anyaccess to the internet or other external components. In still otherembodiments, one or more processing components shown in FIG. 18 isdisposed externally while the remainder is installed locally. Any suchconfigurations are within the scope of the present invention and are notlimited beyond that which is recited in the appended claims.

While various features have been described in conjunction with theexamples outlined above, various alternatives, modifications,variations, and/or improvements of those features and/or examples may bepossible. The particular order of method steps described herein is notintended to be limiting, as steps may be re-ordered or omitted whileremaining within the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the examples,as set forth above, are intended to be only illustrative. Variouschanges may be made without departing from the broad spirit and scope ofthe underlying principles.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method of managing patent analysis comprising the steps of: (a) accessing patent data for each of a plurality of patent references, the patent data including claims information structured such that individual claims are identified and correlated with discrete text information; (b) responsive to the step (a) of accessing patent data, displaying, for a first patent reference of the plurality of patent references, a user-engageable interface comprising a plurality of claim identifiers and, for each claim identifier, a set of user-selectable determinations; (c) receiving, from a user, a determination selection associated with a first claim identifier of the plurality of displayed claim identifiers; and (d) responsive to the step (c) of receiving the determination selection, indicating by visual display that the user-selected determination corresponds with the associated claim identifier.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step (b) further comprises: (i) recognizing, of the individual claims, which are independent claims and which are dependent claims; and (ii) filtering dependent claims such that the displayed plurality of claim identifiers consists of only independent claims.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step (c) further comprises prohibiting the user from conjointly selecting plural determinations in association with the first claim identifier.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of user-selectable determinations comprise user-configurable determinations.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-engageable interface further comprises, for each claim identifier, a user-fillable comment field for associating a text comment with the particular claim identifier.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: receiving user identification information; receiving a user-inputted comment in association with a first claim identifier; associating the user-inputted comment with the user identification information; and displaying the user identification information in association with the user-inputted comment.
 7. A program stored on computer-readable medium that when executed by a computing device performs a method comprising the steps of: (a) accessing patent data for each of a plurality of patent references, the patent data including claims information structured such that individual claims are identified and correlated with discrete text information; (b) responsive to the step (a) of accessing patent data, displaying, for a first patent reference of the plurality of patent references, a user-engageable interface comprising a plurality of claim identifiers and, for each claim identifier, a set of user-selectable determinations; (c) receiving, from a user, a determination selection associated with a first claim identifier of the plurality of displayed claim identifiers; and (d) responsive to the step (c) of receiving the determination selection, indicating by visual display that the user-selected determination corresponds with the associated claim identifier.
 8. The program of claim 7, wherein the step (b) further comprises: (i) recognizing, of the individual claims, which are independent claims and which are dependent claims; and (ii) filtering dependent claims such that the displayed plurality of claim identifiers consists of only independent claims.
 9. The program of claim 7, wherein the step (c) further comprises prohibiting the user from conjointly selecting plural determinations in association with the first claim identifier.
 10. The program of claim 7, wherein the set of user-selectable determinations comprise user-configurable determinations.
 11. The program of claim 7, wherein the user-engageable interface further comprises, for each claim identifier, a user-fillable comment field for associating a text comment with the particular claim identifier.
 12. The program of claim 12, further comprising: receiving user identification information; receiving a user-inputted comment in association with a first claim identifier; associating the user-inputted comment with the user identification information; and displaying the user identification information in association with the user-inputted comment.
 13. A system comprising: a patent data accessing module configured to access patent data for each of a plurality of patent references, the patent data including claims information structured such that individual claims are identified and correlated with discrete text information; a display module configured to, responsive to accessing patent data, display, for a first patent reference of the plurality of patent references, a user-engageable interface comprising a plurality of claim identifiers and, for each claim identifier, a set of user-selectable determinations; and a user interface module configured to receive, from a user, a determination selection associated with a first claim identifier of the plurality of displayed claim identifiers, wherein the display module is further configured to, responsive to receiving the determination selection, indicate by visual display that the user-selected determination corresponds with the associated claim identifier.
 14. The system of claim 14, wherein: the patent data accessing module is further configured to recognize, of the individual claims, which are independent claims and which are dependent claims; and the display module is further configured to filter dependent claims such that the displayed plurality of claim identifiers consists of only independent claims.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the user interface module is further configured to prohibit the user from conjointly selecting plural determinations in association with the first claim identifier.
 16. The system of claim 14, wherein the set of user-selectable determinations comprise user-configurable determinations.
 17. The system of claim 23, wherein the user interface module is further configured to display, for each claim identifier, a user-fillable comment field for associating a text comment with the particular claim identifier.
 18. The system of claim 23, wherein the user interface module is further configured to: receive user identification information; receive a user-inputted comment in association with a first claim identifier; associate the user-inputted comment with the user identification information; and display the user identification information in association with the user-inputted comment. 